Hi everyone, and welcome to our first installment of a new feature series, Ask Gearbox. Every episode, we'll take a question posed by our community and use it to pick the brains of the illustrious employees here at Gearbox. We'll be fielding all kinds of questions from the serious to the absurd, so if you've ever had a question you'd like to ask a team of developers, this column is for you!
To get things started, I thought I'd ask a question a lot of game developers get very frequently: What got you interested in game development?
Brian T : Three words: Excitebike Track Creator
Don E : QuakeC and Worldcraft. Also: Dehacked.
Pat K : warcraft2, I was a late bloomer in terms of PC gaming
Jeff B : Pong, Duck Hunt and Donkey Kong.
Graeme T : Doom.
Mike D : Goldeneye for the N64
Ben N : Playing Ultima 7 & 7 P2. I discovered the secrete test areas and found ways to manipulate the world. It made me feel like a god, so off ya go.
Charlie W : Rise of the Triad and Duke 3D. More importantly, the level editors that were included for both as well as the ability to easily write programs that could change the way those games played.
Erik A : The first time I played a game and thought, "Now how would I have done this differently?" I think I was 6. I really got into the Starcraft Editor (who didn't?) then moved on to the Half-Life editor in 2000, and stayed with that until Unreal Tourney 2004 came out, where I got started on UE2.
Chris P : t's hard to pinpoint a real "hook" for me...gaming/game design was always just something I was into. The most memorable games for me that I've put the most time into are probably the old-school RPG's like the Final Fantasy series (pre-ridiculousness) and adventure titles like Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, et al. I also get a kick out of programming in general, so it's a natural fit and a fun environment.
Michael W : I started with board and card games as a kid, moved to pen and paper as an early teen and then when the big arcade craze hit in the lat 70's got hooked on video games. Choplifter really caught my eye and a really talented buddy of mine wrote "Night Mission" for the TI-99/4A computer with me doing the easy stuff like graphics for it. I've had a serious interest ever since then but only got into an actual games 7 years ago.
Jimmy S : When I first played The Legend of Zelda on NES I wanted to make another game like it to explore Hyrule in new ways. I was unable to really deliver on this dream yet, as I didn't have the knowledge or tools to come close to making a Zelda clone. Later, when Doom was released on PC, I was really into map making, first for the mod community, and later shipping over 30 maps in commercial Doom expansions and addons. This was the first time I was able to realize my dream of making a game by actually creating game content, and I was hooked.
Nate O : Wolfenstein 3D & Doom
Patrick B : Games that inspired me to really get into design where Deus Ex, Half Life and Opposing Force. The intro tram ride in Half Life had a major impact on me. Thats still to this day, one of the coolest things I have experiecned in a game. It really set the atmoshphere and tone for the game. Even before that the pc game NAM. I loved that game. They even had a level in the game pulled straight from the movie Predator, where they assault that camp. Complete with a truck you could knock of the blocks and it drives into a hut and explodes, and even green blood trails in the jungle. I still get excited, and inspired when I play certain games and see something really cool emurge from it. I like being suprised. Playing a game and having something happen that you didn't expect, but is cool is always a fantastic gaming experience. One of the biggest rewards of designing games is when you create something and see it work for the first time as you invisioned it, its awsome, and just inspires to you make it even better.
Dorian G : Super Mario World. I think I was 8 or 9 years old when it came out. My sister and I played through the entire game Mario & Luigi style. I've always had video games, since the day I was born, but this game made me realize this is a really great way to create an experience and share it with the world. From the point on it was a childhood dream. When I was 16 or so HL1 (1998?) came out. (Yes I know I'm young) That's when I really started to realize I could actually do what I really wanted to do. I used other editors before HL1 but not with the same passion. I decided to pursue level design for a path into game design.
That wraps up our first edition of Ask Gearbox! Join us next time to further probe the psyches of Gearbox employees to get the answers to the hard-hitting questions that YOU want to know!
